


Neo Christmas Time: 2020

by selkieskin



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, Families of Choice, Family Bonding, Family Feels, Fluff, Friendship, Fun, Gen, Slice of Life, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:20:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28302963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/selkieskin/pseuds/selkieskin
Summary: Doyoung usually invites the foreign members of NCT whose parents aren't in Korea to come to his house for Christmas with his family.With so many new members of NCT to take care of, how's that going? A sweet, fluffy story of NCT enjoying their time away from the pressure of being NCT together.
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten & Nakamoto Yuta, Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Dong Si Cheng | WinWin & Nakamoto Yuta, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung & Qian Kun, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung & Suh Youngho | Johnny, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung & Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun, Nakamoto Yuta & Huang Ren Jun, Nakamoto Yuta & Osaki Shotaro, Nakamoto Yuta & Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Wong Kun Hang | Hendery & Huang Ren Jun | Renjun, Wong Kun Hang | Hendery & Suh Youngho | Johnny
Comments: 6
Kudos: 148





	Neo Christmas Time: 2020

**Author's Note:**

> Doyoung has been inviting foreign NCT members round to celebrate Christmas at his house since SM Rookies era, and I hope this year is no different! Also, I know Christmas is seen as more of a couples’ holiday than a family holiday in Korean tradition, but this fic assumes they’re all single aside from JohnTen, and seeing as Johnny’s American he’ll probably see Christmas as more of a family thing too. And lastly, this little found family story was written as a present for a good friend of mine that I talk to almost every day, and who vastly improves my life. Here's to you, M. Merry Christmas.

“Merry Christmas!” Ten shouted, as he burst in the door, last to arrive for Christmas Eve - he’d been held up by needing to make and schedule some social media posts to cover while he was off - let in by Doyoung.

Everyone that was crammed into Doyoung’s sitting room - 10 other foreign members whose families weren’t in Korea (Johnny, Winwin, Yangyang, Lucas, Xiaojun, Shotaro, Yuta, Hendery, Kun, and Renjun) - turned round, and fell about laughing and wooping as they saw how he was dressed: full Father Christmas outfit, beard and all, and complete with a present sack with gifts for everyone. There was Christmas music playing in the background of Doyoung’s living room, and Christmas decorations were up. With the lack of space, a tree seemed like a slightly unnecessary thing to be taking up space, and Xiaojun who was sat on the floor nearest it was having to keep his arm up to keep the branches out of his face.

Now that they’d seen his full outfit, Doyoung immediately took the present sack from him, to move them to another room - although Doyoung’s family home was fairly large, with so many people having to be in the same space they’d decided early on to move all the gifts to a separate room from where people were gathered.

“The red ones are for your parents and Gongmyung,” Ten turned quickly and said, referring to Doyoung’s brother. “To thank them for hosting us all again.”

“Thanks, they’re out shopping still, and Gongmyung has a new girlfriend so he won't be seeing us until after Christmas - I’ll let them know, though.”

And Ten turned back to the room and grinned, showing off his outfit to some more woops of approval as Doyoung pushed past him with the heavy bag.

“Oh my god, what are you wearing?” asked Yangyang in English, always ready to tease.

“It’s called Christmas spirit,” Ten shot back in Korean as he waltzed in, ignoring Kun’s eyeroll and mutter of “so dramatic”, picking through the people sat on the floor in order to sit down heavily on Johnny’s lap (there was no other seating space to be fair, although even if there was they all knew Ten would probably have chosen that anyway).

“Oof!” Johnny mimed that Ten was crushing him and reached out to the people sharing the couch with him - Shotaro next to him, and Yuta on the other side of Shotaro - to save him. Yuta immediately played along, grabbing Johnny’s hands and saying “It’s alright, it’s alright!” and Shotaro confusedly joined in without saying anything.

“What?” Ten asked.

“Santa’s so heavy! It’s all those mince pies...” Johnny explained, making Ten laugh in comprehension and just settle down more comfortably. Johnny draped his arms around Ten’s waist, giving up on the joke and holding him there as Doyoung stood up and started to speak.

“Hello everyone, and welcome to our family Christmas - I’m sorry that there’s even less room than usual this year, but the more the merrier! There’s definitely enough food to go round. For our first-time visitors, the toilets are upstairs, you’re welcome to all food in the kitchen that isn’t on the bottom two shelves of the fridge. If you need anything at all, you can ask me or my parents.” He looked at the newer members, who he knew had a shakier understanding of Korean and repeated himself, and Yuta did a quiet translation into Japanese for Shotaro.

“Now, if I remember correctly…” Johnny said, leaning round Ten’s back to see the room, “you have Jenga in the cupboard over there, don’t you?”

“Yep, top shelf,” Doyoung confirmed.

“Lucas!” Johnny called for aid from one of their tallest members.

Lucas eagerly agreed, and Hendery got up to help, although his help (holding open the cupboard doors) wasn’t strictly necessary. There were a few members who were still feeling awkward being with everyone and having to be loud - Shotaro, obviously, because of his struggles with Korean, but Xiaojun and Hendery too - and this would be a good way to get everyone going.

“Can anyone help me to carry drinks in from the kitchen?” Doyoung asked, and Renjun, Yangyang and Kun got up, and Kun dragged an awkward Xiaojun to his feet to help too. Yuta made a show of finally being able to stretch his legs out in front of him from the couch, which made Shotaro giggle.

“This is nice, isn’t it?” he said, with his trademark healing smile, looking more relaxed than he had in months. “Being able to spend a day together like this.”

“Doyoung said you do this every year, right?” Hendery asked.

“Yeah!” said Lucas enthusiastically. “He’s really… he’s a really kind guy. And so are his family, for letting us stay.”

"Exactly," Ten agreed. "You won't have experienced this before, but this makes you a proper foreign NCT member. Just enjoy it!"

\----

In the kitchen, Doyoung was pulling bottles of beer out of the fridge and handing them to the people stood behind him. Once Kun’s arms were full, Yangyang came and took some, then Renjun, and finally Xiaojun offered his empty hands.

There weren’t any more that needed taking through though, so Doyoung just smiled at him and straightened up.

“What snack food do you think everyone would like?” he asked. “That’s one beer for everyone to start with, so we’ll just take in something else.”

“Um, I don’t know, what have you got?”

“Basically everything,” Doyoung confirmed. “I don’t know exactly what everybody likes, so I just got a selection. It’s got to last us until tomorrow too though, so you pick what we eat first.”

“Oh, I eat anything,” said Xiaojun. “I’m Cantonese, you know.”

“So is that really a thing?” Doyoung said, glad that he’d got an answer out of him.

“Yeah!” said Xiaojun enthusiastically, eager to impress. “Honestly, if there’s any food in front of me, I’ll eat it. But especially spicy stuff. Have you ever tried Lao Gan Ma?”

“Oh, the really spicy paste? I’ve had that.”

“It’s so good, I have it on everything, have you ever tried it with chicken, or noodles, or fried eggs?”

Renjun came back in, saving Doyoung from Xiaojun in full flow.

“Beer delivered,” he reported. “Do you need any more help?”

“Yep, we’re just deciding on snack foods. Xiaojun votes spicy to start, right?”

“Ooh, good choice,” said Renjun. “Which cupboard are they in?”

\----

By the time they came back, Ten’s Father Christmas beard was on Hendery’s face and he was posing in stupid ways with it for the WayV members (plus Johnny), Yuta had moved allowing Ten to be sat technically next to Johnny but still somehow no less on his lap, and Lucas and Yuta were engrossed in making sure the Jenga was set up and straight on the coffee table with Yuta chatting and giving instructions. Hendery stuck his tongue out through the beard hole and there was a cry of “eww, gross!” as some of the beard hair got caught on his tongue and Kun and Ten both pulled an identical face of disgust (because despite their Tom and Jerry relationship, they were more similar than they liked to admit).

“Looks good,” Doyoung commented about the Jenga set, carefully setting some large bowls down on the table around it and opening the snack bags to empty the red powdery crisps into them. Xiaojun silently set down the dips, and Lucas even pulled one from his hand to open it and start diving in with a fresh tortilla chip.

That started a bit of a frenzy as 12 pairs of hands all tried to get to their favourite dips without jostling the newly-set-up Jenga - a situation that didn't last long, as when Ten muscled in next to Winwin, Winwin's arm knocked into the top of Lucas and Yuta's perfect tower, loudly scattering Jenga pieces from the top few rows onto the tabletop and onto the floor. One piece landed squarely in the sour cream dip, on its end.

The chatter hushed as everyone - particularly the new WayV members, who were a bit scared of Yuta - gazed open-mouthed at the architect of the tower, waiting to see what he'd do.

Yuta stood up, pointing directly at Ten.

"You!" he accused.

"Me? What did I do!?" Ten protested.

"You jostled him!"

"Yuta will never blame anything on Winwin," Kun shared in a low voice in Mandarin with the younger WayV members, and they all nodded wisely.

"I didn't!" Ten protested, but he was laughing and squirming in a way that told everyone he knew exactly what he did. 

"Right, you're going down!" Yuta yelled, and came round the table after him. Ten tried to hide behind Johnny, laughing fit to burst, but Johnny just shrugged and let Yuta get him, much to the hilarity of the veteran NCT members and the silent horror of the newbies from WayV. But luckily, after grabbing Ten's neck and pretending to strangle him, making him shriek, Yuta backed off and they both just laughed.

"I worked hard on that!" Yuta scolded, before he was interrupted by a crash from behind him.

He turned, to find Lucas frozen there, tortilla chip in hand, looking very guilty.

"Oops," he said.

\----

"In hindsight," Johnny said, helping Doyoung wash the pieces of Jenga that had fallen into various dips, then handing them to Doyoung to dry with a tea towel, "we probably should have saved Jenga until after snack time."

"I don't care too much about that," Doyoung said, frowning at a stray bit of dip on a piece and handing it back to Johnny. "It's more important that everyone's making good memories and having a good time. Oh my god, did you see Xiaojun and Hendery when Yuta stood up? Their faces!"

They both laughed.

"They're cute, aren't they?"

"Like, I do understand where they get it from," Doyoung continued. "Even I thought he was strange at first. But he's such a softy, especially around Winwin. Or Mark. His muses."

"I mean, if you want to call it that," Johnny joked, and finished rinsing the last piece and waiting for the tea towel to dry his hands on, leaning back against the counter. "I think it's because he's always the first one to approach new foreign members and get them talking. It's so direct. It unnerves people."

"Are you talking about me?" Yuta said, entering the kitchen with an arm draped around Winwin, just the way they always were. 

"Yep," said Doyoung, handing Johnny the towel to dry his hands. "We were saying good things, though."

"Hmm, should I believe him?" Yuta asked Winwin, who rolled his eyes.

"What bad things do you want them to say about you?" Winwin responded.

"I don't know, it'd be interesting. I'd be a villain."

"Hey, you want us to say bad things, you've gotta do bad things," Johnny said, and Yuta's eyes lit up.

"What bad things are we doing?" said Renjun eagerly as he entered the kitchen with Yangyang. Doyoung laughed, before he went serious.

"Listen: don't do bad things in my house."

"Come on, we could do a few bad things," Johnny said, teasing gently.

"Just one or two," said Renjun.

"Come on Doyoung, I've got a reputation to uphold."

"He's joking," Renjun clarified to Yangyang, in Korean still. "He doesn't have a reputation to uphold."

"Hey! Respect your elders!" Yuta said, pretending to be offended.

"What do you all want, anyway?" Doyoung said to the rabble, as Hendery also came in.

"Recycle bin?" Yuta asked, holding up his empty beer bottle.

"Oh yeah," Doyoung said. "Blue bin, through there."

There was a sudden swell of greeting over the noise of the music and general chat, and everybody's ears pricked up.

"Mr. Kim, Mrs. Kim, hello! Long time no see!"

"Hello, I'm called Xiao De Jun, it's very nice to meet you."

"Thank you so much for hosting us again! We'll try not to be too loud."

"Hello... I'm Shotaro…"

Everyone looked at Doyoung, who smiled.

"And that means my parents have come back. Now who here has never met them?"

Johnny, Yuta and Renjun pointed at Hendery and Yangyang, who sheepishly raised their hands.

"Well, they don't bite," Doyoung assured. "Come on, let's go and introduce you to my parents."

"They do bite," Yuta said in a low tone to Hendery, who gave a nervous laugh in response. Doyoung hit him.

"Shh! This is why they're scared of you, you say weird things."

\----

Once everyone had said the appropriate greetings and introductions and presented their gifts to Doyoung's parents, it was starting to get late.

Yuta had been having some knee trouble lately so he got to share the double airbed with Kun, as the shortest member (despite his protests) Xiaojun got stuck with the sofa, and the rest made their beds in blankets on the floor, with a pillow each (though Ten and Johnny had to share theirs). Doyoung of course went up to his own bed in his bedroom - he was a man who needed his peace and quiet, and who would never pass up the chance to spend a night in his own bed.

As everyone in their pyjamas started to wind down and get comfy on the floor, Yangyang piped up:

"So… are we gonna play truth or dare or something?"

Shotaro's eyes lit up, and Johnny elbowed Ten, checking he'd noticed.

"OK," said Ten, deciding it for the group.

"Guys," Kun said warningly, "Mr. and Mrs. Kim will be trying to sleep, we can't be too loud…"

"Then we won't be. Right?"

"How about this?" Johnny suggested. "We keep it to a whisper, it ends at midnight, and the moment anyone goes above that level, it ends immediately and that person has to apologise to both Doyoung and his parents first thing in the morning. Got it?"

Unfortunately, that lasted all of 5 minutes before Shotaro laughed too loudly at poor Lucas trying to eat a whole raw chilli in complete silence and everyone shushed him, but nobody had the heart to tell him to do the forfeit.

Lucas' snoring later was louder than Shotaro ever was, anyway.

\----

On Christmas morning, they all woke up with Renjun protesting as Hendery had accidentally stuck his feet into his face in his sleep, and Yangyang was ready to team up with him and betray his fellow WayV member because "come on dude, that's just gross".

"Mmm, make them shut up," Ten groaned, burying his face further into Johnny's chest. Yuta put his pillow over his ears. Kun sat up, and tried to intervene and make peace, but they weren't listening to him at all.

Johnny sighed, and gave Ten a quick kiss of apology on the top of his head, before getting up out of their blanket nest and taking control.

"Think of it like a kind of weird unexpected stocking," he joked, turning everyone's attention back to him. "Because… it's Christmas! Yeah!"

"But-" Yangyang protested.

"No buts," Johnny said, tone friendly but one that brooked no arguments. He came and stood next to Hendery, slinging a friendly arm over his shoulder. Hendery grinned back at him. "Let's just wish each other a Merry Christmas, OK?"

"Merry Christmas," Hendery started.

"Merry Christmas," Renjun continued.

And once everyone had gone round saying a 'Merry Christmas' each, everyone was much more gently awake, and the mood was much more festive and less full of the danger of an imminent Renjun attack. 

With so many people, the combination of eating and gift-giving took up much of that morning, though they also played a few games of Mafia and watched Elf together. Everyone laughed at how much Shotaro laughed at it - it was a lot of physical comedy, which helped.

\----

In the afternoon, the plan was to go out and see the Christmas lights display together in a park near Doyoung's house. And they were beautiful.

"Wow, look at this!" Yuta beamed at Winwin, who looked in quiet awe at the display. Hendery, Yangyang, Renjun and Shotaro all ran ahead giddily, just looking at the white lights above their heads in the dimming daylight. Kun, Lucas and Doyoung were having an intense intellectual discussion about their favourite movies, with Xiaojun interjecting occasionally and everyone disagreeing (he liked the Twilight series an unusual amount). Johnny and Ten quietly hung back a bit, looking at how the light reflected on each others' faces.

"Merry Christmas, Ten," he said, so that nobody could hear them. He hoped they were both so wrapped in scarves that no one they didn't want to would take special notice of them.

"I love you," Ten responded.

Johnny forced himself not to check their surroundings. He wanted to stay in this moment, wanted to feel like it was just them, seeing the Christmas lights together.

"I love you too," he said, and saw how even after all this time, Ten's face lit up brighter than the lights shining around them, and Johnny wanted to kiss him but couldn't, so instead he leant forward and whispered in his ear: "And the Santa beard yesterday? Sexy."

That made Ten laugh, and Johnny could never get enough of Ten laughing.

"Oh, you like a man with a beard now, do you?"

"Well, no," Johnny said, as if he was considering it, "but if it's you…"

Ten blushed, and pulled a horrified face to cover it.

"I'm never putting that near my face again, not now that Hendery's licked it."

They both pulled a face, in sync.

"Mood killer," Johnny complained.

"Simon Says urin real vibe killer…!" Ten sang, not entirely in tune, making his boyfriend grin in return.

"Well, if anyone thought we might be from NCT, the way you sang that will make them think we aren't."

Ten put a gloved hand to his mouth, pretending to be shocked, before putting it down again.

"Well, now that they think we're not…" he said, "...want to try and find a corner of the park where you can hold my hand?"

"Of course," Johnny said, grinning back at him. "Come on. Let's go that way."

\----

Kun and Doyoung had found a bench, and were just admiring the lights together, watching the others (except Johnny and Ten) chatting happily and looking at the lights, travelling around the park.

"Thank you," Kun said, all of a sudden.

"Mm?" said Doyoung, surprised. "What for?"

"You probably want to be doing stuff like this with your parents," Kun replied. "But thank you for going to the trouble of looking after us all once a year. That's something I really admire about you."

Doyoung flushed, pleased at the praise from someone who he didn't end up talking with that often. He fiddled with the thumb on his glove, and then responded.

"Thank you," he said. "That means a lot. But, if the situations were reversed, and we were in China, you'd do the same right? I can tell that about you."

Kun contemplated that for a moment.

"I'm not sure that I would…" he said. "I take my responsibilities as leader very seriously, and I make sure to treat my members well. We spent Christmas day together last year, but it was just kind of an extra day off for us. But you've opened your home to so many people this year, even me…"

"You are one of my members too, you know," Doyoung reminded him. "And I know there's so often not much chance to just hang out and be carefree like this, to just talk away from all the pressure and the noise the way we're doing right now. And if the company doesn't create those chances, well, it's up to us then, isn't it?"

Kun smiled, and Renjun caught his eye and waved, and the others joined in, so Kun and Doyoung waved back.

"Yeah," Kun agreed, happily. "It's up to us. And this is so worth it. Thank you."

Doyoung smiled at him, before also turning to watch everyone, as Hendery started to chase Yangyang and Renjun around hopping - return of the foot, no doubt.

"You're all my family, too," he said. "Merry Christmas, Kun."

"Shall we go and join the others? We should take a group photo. Just for us to see."

"Good idea," he agreed.

It took a while for them to track down Johnny and Ten in the remote corner of the park they'd ended up in, but at last everyone was together, they found a good spot that showed off the lights behind them, and asked an old couple to get a picture of them.

"Ready?" the old man said, awkwardly holding Doyoung's phone. Doyoung gritted his teeth and prayed he wouldn't drop it. "Three, two, one-"

He took the first one, and after checking with him and his wife that they were fine to take a second one, Doyoung clapped to get everyone's attention.

"Now: a silly one," he said, grinning. "And this isn't going to be shared, only we are gonna see it, so… be as silly as you like. This is a memento of Christmas 2020."

And he struck a silly pose, face looking ugly the way he never let himself be on camera usually, double chins and tongue out. Everyone else followed suit, with a few of the younger members somehow forming some sort of people tower with Shotaro sat on Xiaojun and Renjun's shoulders (with Lucas reaching a hand behind to make sure he didn't fall) and Hendery crouched down forming a steeple with his hands beneath them, and Yuta doing his signature anime-style pose crouching on the ground, looking serious, which Ten and Johnny ended up copying in ridiculous ways. Winwin just smiled awkwardly as usual, and Kun copied Doyoung.

"Three, two, one…" said the man.

And there. That was the NCT Christmas 2020 gathering at Doyoung's, captured forever.

But only for them to see (well, them, and their other members - Renjun, it turned out, was mid-blink at the wrong moment in BOTH pictures, and Dream would never let him live it down).

Merry Christmas!


End file.
